Academic Update
The students have their exams this week. It is never the students’ favorite period, but as soon as this is over the field component of the Directed Research projects start and this really is the part of the program that many of the students enjoy the most. All of the class work has been building up to this and it is a great experience for both students and staff. A new project for this semester is looking at the distribution of invasive lionfish around South Caicos. We saw our first lionfish almost exactly two years ago and since that time they have been growing in numbers. It is worrying and we need to understand more about where they are found so that we can have a better idea of how to manage this problem. We have been encouraging fishermen to catch them and for people to eat them, but there is still a widespread (and unfounded) fear that because they have venomous spines they are also poisonous to eat. At the weekend at “Conch Fest” we helped the TCI Department of Environment and Coastal Resources by catching some lionfish that they cooked up and gave away. At first people were not too keen, but once they found out it tastes like grouper they came back for more
-John Claydon, Center Director

Student Reflections
This past week has been a little stressful. We are wrapping up classes and have a lot of presentations and are preparing for final exams. During the stress of studying we would find many ways to procrastinate, such as walking into town to buy candy from Wilson’s, playing dominos, playing volleyball, etc. Saturday provided the best study break of all - it was Conch Fest. Queen Conch is a marine gastropod that is extremely economically important to the people of TCI. They celebrate it once a year at Conch Fest.

The celebration was held at the regatta, and there was a DJ, decorations, games, competitions, and conch fritters. It was a lot of fun, and the whole community came out for it. There was even a conch eating contest! One of the students won $50 in a competition called the frozen shirt contest. She and another girl each had a frozen shirt and the first person to break the ice off and put the shirt on is the winner. She won and was thrilled. We also participated in the volleyball competition. We lost to a High Point team (the people building the High Point hotel) but beat the teachers from the local high school. Our team won third place! It was a fun day full of food and games. What more could you ask for in a study break?
-Kelly Hannan, Villanova University

In the last week we have had many new and exciting adventures here at The School for Field Studies on South Caicos. This past Saturday was the Conch Fest, a small local festival with music and food. Snorkeling was exciting this week too, a baby sea turtle was sighted at one of our favorite snorkeling locations, Shark Alley. The turtle was around the size of a Frisbee with flippers and was just swimming along the bottom until startled by one of the students when it swam off. It was very cute. This week we had presentations while exams finished today. We will be starting our independent research projects soon and it is sad to note that it is only four weeks until we go home.
-Lianne Samalot, Clark University

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